Friday, June 24, 2011

Sand Trapped - The Big Cypress Fox Squirrel

People don’t appreciate squirrels. One person’s pest is
another person’s treasure. Such was the case as I drove past a golf course on
my way out of a gated community in Fort
Myers. Bounding across the fairway was a large Big
Cypress Fox Squirrel (BCFS). I slammed on the brakes and jumped out, camera in
hand. The tan-bellied, salt-and-pepper backed squirrel was as interested in me
as I was of it and we stood for a moment like two gunslingers, unflinching. A
disgusted woman shook her head and headed after her ball.

The BigCypress Fox Squirrel (Sciurus nigra avicennia), is an endemic subspecies here
in southwest Florida.
They’re found from the Caloosahatchee south through the mangroves along the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike most of Florida’s terrestrial mammals, the BCFS are
diurnal (day active), ground foragers. They feed on pine and cypress cones,
palmetto berries, bromeliad seeds and a host of other native seeds and fruits.
They prefer an open understory in the pine flatwoods, cypress swamps and
mangroves. What is unusual is that as development continues to slice up their
habitat, leaving it more and more fragmented, the squirrels have taken to golf
courses which retain characteristics of their preferred habitat – open grazing
areas with forested refuges.

Golf course BCFS have been shown to be more gregarious. They
mate year round and are less susceptible to food shortages. Land managers have
helped protect the species by leaving natural vegetation and planting trees,
shrubs and grasses around the golf courses that specifically benefit the BCFS.
The problem is sustainability. Increasingly these squirrel-occupied urban
islands become more separated from natural communities and any link to other
populations requires hazardous and often fatal road crossings.

Additionally, foraging around a golf course may seem like
the life of leisure but without the protection of a forest canopy the squirrels
must keep an eye skyward for birds of prey.

Their relaxed social standards could put them at risk as
well. Normally solitary, golf course squirrels that congregate are at greater
risk of spreading diseases to one another like Squirrel Poxvirus. A BCFS was
found to be infected in 2010 and although an outbreak has not been reported,
the virus is spread by contact and would have the greatest impact on sociable
squirrels.

Golf courses have benefited BCFS to a degree but ultimately
these populations must remain connected to their backwoods neighbors or they
are all doomed. Will anyone miss them when they’re gone?

Hello. My name is John Kellam and I am a biologist with the National Park Service at Big Cypress National Preserve. Since 2007, I have been the lead biologist on the first successful home range and habitat use study of the Big Cypress fox squirrel in its natural environment.

While searching online for Big Cypress fox squirrel images, I saw your images of one eating a Tillandsia stem - these are great photos! I am putting together a fox squirrel PowerPoint presentation for the preserve and would love to have your photos be used in it, as one of the eating food items examples. I would put your name and copyright image on each photo; your images would only be used for the PowerPoint. I can be contacted at: office 239 695 1173Email: john_kellam@nps.govOrjohnkellam@hotmail.comThanks, John

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." The same can be said for poop in a sens...

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Hey! Look at me!

I was born and raised just west of the Everglades. Growing up at the Florida Monkey Sanctuary, a 10-acre, private non-profit organization owned and operated by my parents.
My experience at the sanctuary involved not only working with hundreds of primates of various species, but also provided the opportunity to become immersed in the natural history of the area, where the sanctuary alone was home to Sandhill Cranes, Wood Storks, Indigo Snakes, River Otters and abundance of other native wildlife. Leaving the subtropics for colder climates, I attended the University of Vermont and graduated with a BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. I returned to southwestern Florida and guided for the Everglades Day Safari from 1998-2000 before once again trading sandals for snowshoes in Vermont where I worked for six years as a Park Ranger at Lowell Lake State Park in Londonderry, VT. and for several years as the Director of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Manchester, VT.
Now I'm back in Florida and I’ve returned with a vengeance, which I keep caged like an angry monkey with a bucket full of poop and deadly accuracy.